Division for Palestinian Rights
Chronological Review of Events Relating to the
Question of Palestine
MONTHLY MEDIA MONITORING REVIEW
June 2002
1
Palestinian witnesses said some 30 people were rounded up in Tammun, north-east of Nablus, after more than two dozen tanks and APCs entered the area and imposed a curfew. A Palestinian man was wounded when Israeli soldiers opened fire, and a Palestinian boy was wounded in the leg when soldiers opened fire to disperse young people throwing rocks during a search operation in the neighbouring Al-Far’a refugee camp. Israeli soldiers continued arrests throughout the weekend in Nablus, blowing up a suspected explosives factory and the home of the family of a Palestinian suicide bomber. A 23-year-old Palestinian was killed by an Israeli sniper there, Palestinian hospital sources said The Los Angeles Times reported that he had defied the curfew to pray in a mosque in the Old City. Israeli soldiers also opened fire on a crowd of Palestinians waiting to leave Al-Bireh via an alternative path after the IDF had closed the checkpoints it manned on the roads out of town, wounding two men and a woman. Separately, a Palestinian man shot in the neck during an Israeli raid in Nablus in the beginning of May died from his wounds in a Jordanian hospital. (AFP, The Los Angeles Times, Reuters, XINHUA)
“I think a guaranteed implementation and a monitored implementation [of any future Israeli-Palestinian peace accords] is crucial”, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer told reporters after holding talks with President Mubarak in Sharm el-Sheikh, adding “one of the shortcomings of the Oslo process was that the guarantee of implementation was not in the hands of the international community.” (AFP)
2
An Israeli settler opened fire on a group of Palestinian schoolchildren who had pelted his car with stones as he drove through the village of Silat al-Dhahr, between Nablus and Jenin in the northern West Bank, injuring one 14-year-old, the village’s mayor said. (AFP)
US envoy William Burns, speaking to King Abdullah II, stressed “President Bush and Secretary of State Powell wish to hold the [Middle East peace] conference this summer, in order to ensure its success” and to reach this goal “in collaboration with the friends and partners,” according to an official Jordanian source. On the same day, Chairman Arafat said in an interview with Jordan’s Petra agency “There is an Israeli attempt to back out of this conference. They want it to be a simple meeting and not a conference which takes decisions.” The next day, Prime Minister Sharon made it a precondition for Israel’s attendance at the conference that Lebanon, Syria and Chairman Arafat be excluded. (AFP, XINHUA)
3
Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert told Israel Radio that an Israeli contractor began erecting a fence around a 14-hectare area in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Jebel Mukhaber, where a new Israeli settlement “Nof Zahav” (“Golden View”) would be built. It would contain several hundred apartments, a luxury hotel and a cable car. The project was launched by a private company, Digal Investments, headed by former Jerusalem police chief Arie Amit, who told the radio he had obtained all the necessary permits from the city council. However, the radio quoted Palestinian residents of Jebel Mukhaber as saying that when they requested permits to build on the area, the municipality had told them it was designated a “green area” where construction was not allowed. Foreign Minister Peres said a decision to build a new neighbourhood in East Jerusalem should have been debated by the Cabinet, while Meretz MK Yossi Sarid called the decision “a damaging adventure of the Sharon-Peres Government.” (DPA, Ha’aretz)
The PA’s High Court of Justice, Gaza ordered the immediate release of Ahmed Sa’adat, leader of the PFLP, saying there was no evidence linking him to the killing of the Israeli Minister Rehavam Ze’evy. Mr. Sa’adat has been in a Palestinian jail in Jericho after being transferred there early last month as part of an internationally brokered deal, which helped end Israel’s siege of Chairman Arafat’s Ramallah HQ. Israeli spokesman Ra’anan Gissin reacted to the Court’s decision by threatening that Israel would take action against Mr. Sa’adat if he were released. “ Freeing him would be a violation of the agreement with the Americans and the British and in this case Israel would be free to act in accordance with its security requirements,” Defence Minister Ben-Eliezer told Israel Army Radio. Later in a statement the PA Cabinet expressed “respect for the [Palestinian] High Court of Justice decision” of immediately releasing the PFLP leader, but said the decision could not be implemented “given the present circumstances, and because of Israeli threats”. (AFP, DPA, Reuters)
Israeli troops reentered the town of Qalqilya, imposing curfew and conducting house-to-house searches, and entered Ein Beit-Al-Ma’ refugee camp on the north-western outskirts of Nablus, interrogating its entire male population. (AFP, DPA)
US State Department spokesman Phillip Reeker, in remarks to reporters, said he was not specifically aware of any new Israeli development project in East Jerusalem, but confirmed that the US position on settlement activity has been quite clear and unchanged, namely that it was “unhelpful”. (AFP)
4
Director of Central Intelligence Agency George Tenet met Chairman Arafat in Ramallah, after having met Prime Minister Sharon in Jerusalem the previous evening. “[Mr. Tenet] came to evaluate the rebuilding of the security branches and the situation on the ground as part of American efforts to move in parallel on security and political tracks”, Chairman Arafat’s adviser Nabil Abu Rudaineh said about the Arafat-Tenet meeting. Reuters reported that Mr. Arafat had presented Mr. Tenet with a plan to streamline the PA security forces, according to which nine services would be amalgamated into three agencies for presidential security, general security and internal security and intelligence. (AFP, Reuters)
PA Preventive Security Chief in the Gaza Strip Mohammed Dahlan said he had resigned from his post after he had been offered the job of national security adviser to Chairman Arafat, as part of a reshuffle in the Palestinian security services. Mr. Dahlan said he had not yet decided whether to accept the offer. (Reuters)
The IDF moved into Jenin, following reports of the whereabouts of wanted militants, which reportedly proved wrong and the troops withdrew an hour later. The IDF also moved into the Hebron area and imposed a curfew, following the wounding of two Israelis, one of them seriously, when their truck overturned after coming under attack with rocks near the city. In the village of Beit Omar, near Hebron, Israeli soldiers had shot dead a Palestinian teenager, witnesses said. The IDF said soldiers had fired rubber-coated metal bullets at rock-throwing youths. The IDF continued to occupy Nablus for a fifth day. Israeli troops had also entered Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, where they had seized three Palestinians sought for carrying out actions hostile to Israel, an IDF statement said. Witnesses and hospital sources said one Palestinian had been seriously wounded and four arrested. One house had been demolished and a dozen others damaged, while fields had been razed and trees torn up. (AFP, Ha’aretz, Reuters)
King Mohammed VI of Morocco and Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, in a joint statement at the end of the former’s four-day visit to Syria, had “denounce[d] the policy of assassination, destruction and siege carried out by Israel against the Palestinian people”, SANA reported. The two leaders had called on the world community, in particular the United Nations Security Council, to “assume its responsibilities in putting a stop to these Israeli war crimes” and said they “support[ed] the battle of the Palestinian people to recover their legitimate rights, including the building of an independent State with Jerusalem as its capital”. At the same time, they had expressed support for the Saudi-inspired Arab peace initiative adopted at the Beirut Summit in March. (AFP)
Ha’aretz reported that Prime Minister Sharon had approved a 110-kilometer fence that would stretch “from Kafr Salem near Megiddo to Kafr Kassem” and, “with some minor corrections”, would follow the Green Line. The fence, which would be part of a series of obstacles aimed at keeping suicide bombers outside Israel, would run east of a number of settlements on the Green Line, as well as east of the Palestinian villages of Kafr Barta and Baqa Al-Sharkia, both divided by the Line. It would be part of the barrier the Defence Ministry had been preparing and would be patroled by units of the army and the Border Police. Defense Ministry sources said the fence would take about a year to build and would cost about US$1 million a kilometre. (Ha’aretz)
Visiting Moroccan King Mohammed VI met with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah in Jeddah. The two Arab leaders agreed to enhance cooperation in furthering efforts to restart the Middle East peace process and to put a halt to Israeli actions against the Palestinian people. Moroccan Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Minister Mohamed Benaissa said in a statement that the King’s tour, which had earlier brought him to Jordan and Syria and would be followed by a visit to Qatar, coincided with crucial regional developments, especially Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people. The Minister expressed regret that the Israeli Government had failed to respond positively to Arab peace initiatives, stressing that the Saudi initiative, adopted as the common Arab peace plan at the recent Arab summit in Lebanon, constituted the basis for a political settlement to the Middle East crisis. (www.moroccodaily.com )
The IDF withdrew from the Balata refugee camp in the northern West Bank city of Nablus, which had been occupied for five days. Separately, Israeli forces in Nablus opened fire on an armoured car carrying two journalists working for Reuters, but neither was hurt, the journalists said. (AFP, Reuters)
Arab League Secretary-General Amre Moussa, during a press conference in Paris at the French-Arab Chamber of Commerce, warned that Israel had placed itself “above the law” and condemned the “exceptional immunity” enjoyed by Israel, citing the cancellation of the UN Fact-Finding Mission to the Jenin refugee camp in April. Mr. Moussa also reiterated concerns over the organization of a Middle East peace conference, saying it could lead to increased violence if prepared too hastily. He said such talks had to produce an agreement based on “the principle of land for peace, with guarantees for its implementation and the drafting of a calendar that would bring about a global solution.”(AFP)
5
A Palestinian suicide attacker exploded a powerful car bomb next to an Israeli bus killing at least 16 people and wounding around 40. The car was blown up near Megiddo during the morning rush hour, as the bus was travelling from Tel Aviv to Tiberias. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack planned to coincide with the 35th anniversary of the Israeli occupation. The PA condemned the bombing, stressing in a statement that it had nothing to do with the attack. Senior Palestinian negotiator and PA Minister Saeb Erakat said Israel’s daily incursions into Palestinian areas had disabled the Palestinian security services. “The Israeli army is in total control of the West Bank, we have no authority any more,” he told CNN . “We have the tightest closure and siege ever, where the movement of Palestinians is prevented anywhere, and these things happen and then they blame us,” he said. Palestinian security chiefs decided to arrest all members of the military wings from the Islamic Jihad and Hamas organizations, Israel Radio reported, quoting a Palestinian security source. (AFP, DPA, Ha’aretz, The Jerusalem Post, Reuters)
Israeli tanks rolled into Jenin, Palestinian security sources said, hours after the Palestinian car bombing. The incursion followed a helicopter gunship assault. No casualties were reported. Israeli military sources described the operation as a “routine patrol.” In a separate incident around dawn, a Palestinian had been killed and another wounded by Israeli tank fire east of Gaza City, Palestinian security officials said. (AFP, EFE, Reuters, XINHUA)
The following statement attributable to the Spokesman for Secretary-General Kofi Annan was issued in Moscow on 5 June 2002.
The Secretary-General was appalled by this morning’s bomb attack in northern Israel.
It comes at a time when there is a concerted international effort to convene a peace conference on the Middle East.
Brutal and willful killing of innocent civilians can never be justified, no matter what the political objective. Every effort must be made to bring to justice those responsible for this cruel act.
The Secretary-General extends his condolences to the families of the victims and to the Government of Israel.
He urges those committed to finding a political solution in the Middle East to stay the course. The enemies of peace should not be allowed to derail this process. (UN News Service)
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said President Bush condemned in the strongest terms the suicide bombing in Israel, saying the attack underscored the importance of the PA developing a security force that could be relied on to stop and to prevent attacks. Mr. Fleischer added that President Bush was undeterred by the attack and would continue trying to negotiate a ceasefire and, eventually a Palestinian State “living side by side in peace and security” with Israel. Meanwhile, Assistant Secretary of State Williams Burns, after meeting with Lebanese Foreign Minister Mahmoud Hammoud in Beirut, stressed that military solutions would not resolve the Middle East conflict, while reiterating the US Administration’s commitment to “comprehensive peace and progress on all tracks”. (DPA, Reuters)
The Russian Foreign Ministry in a statement strongly condemned the latest Palestinian suicide bombing in Israel, while calling on the Palestinian leadership to take more concrete steps in combating terrorism. The statement added that it was “imperative to reform the Palestinian security services as fast as possible” so that it would become more effective in fighting terrorism. France and Germany also condemned the attacks. (AFP, DPA, Ha’aretz, XINHUA)
6
In retaliation for the suicide bombing in Megiddo the previous day, Israeli troops in some 50 tanks and APCs entered the grounds of Chairman Arafat’s Ramallah HQs firing at least 30 shells and other heavy gunfire at the compound. There were heavy exchanges of gunfire, destroying several buildings and a number of cars before pulling back six hours later. One of Mr. Arafat’s bodyguards was killed and several other Palestinians were wounded. Although his private quarters had also been hit by shells, Mr. Arafat was unharmed himself, as he had been working in another part of the building. The IDF denied that Chairman Arafat personally had been a target. Defence Minister Ben-Eliezer said the aim of the raid was “to focus responsibility on the behaviour of the Palestinian Authority for terror in general and the current wave in particular, against which the PA and its head do not do enough to stop”. Following the IDF withdrawal, Chairman Arafat said such actions only increased the steadfastness of the Palestinian people and testified to Israeli “fascism and racism”. PA Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said the overnight assault had been “another indication of the comprehensive Israeli war against the Palestinian Authority”. (AFP, DPA, Reuters, XINHUA)
Shortly after troops pulled out of Chairman’s Arafat compound in Ramallah, several armoured vehicles staged a brief incursion into the suburb of Beitounia, where heavy machine-gun fire was heard. Witnesses said Israeli troops, who had come under fire from Palestinian gunmen, had arrested 10 to 15 Palestinians in the area. In another raid, Israeli tanks moved into Jenin, firing as they advanced and clashing with Palestinian gunmen. No injuries were reported on either side. Tanks also massed at the south-east entrance to Bethlehem, where the army proceeded to make house-to-house and car searches, according to Palestinian sources. The IDF had also entered the Palestinian village of Abadia, east of Bethlehem, and had conducted similar searches, residents told AFP. In the nearby village of Al-Doha, two children had been lightly wounded when a booby-trap hidden in the ground exploded, Palestinian medical sources said; Palestinian security sources claimed the explosive had been planted by the Israeli army. (AFP, DPA, Reuters, XINHUA)
A founder of the Islamic Jihad, Sheikh Nafez Azzam, told Reuters in Gaza that suicide bombings would continue, as there was “nothing offered by the United States, Israel or the world that could end Israel’s occupation”. “So, resistance including martyrdom attacks is the sole choice to regain our rights”, he added. (Reuters)
Foreign Minister Peres was quoted as saying to Israeli exporters in Tel Aviv that the US was shaping a new diplomatic initiative, in which the Palestinians would have to waive the right of return in exchange for Israel’s evacuation of all the settlements. Mr. Peres reiterated his view that even if it took time to reach an agreement, Israel should not wait to re-engage in negotiations and should cooperate with the US, Russia and European countries towards reaching an agreement with the Palestinians. A renewal of the political process, Mr. Peres added, would help to solve many of the problems besetting the Israeli economy. Ha’aretz reported that t he US State Department’s latest draft for a regional peace initiative included the establishment of a Palestinian State along the 4 June 1967 lines, with some minor border corrections, and a three-year timetable for its implementation. The initiative would include a demand for structural reform in the PA and a declaration that the right of return of refugees would not be implemented inside the State of Israel. It would reiterate the position of the current U S Administration, which called for a two-State solution and regarded Israel as the Jewish state. This initiative would be meant to produce a political horizon, as the basis for convening a regional conference, which would be the first step toward renewing the political process. Ha’aretz said the initiative had been formulated by the State Department, which favoured deepening US involvement in the region and presenting a detailed framework for ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, whereas other sections of the US Administration had reservations about the initiative and President Bush had yet to receive it. The Office of Prime Minister Sharon was reportedly hoping that Vice-President Cheney and Defence Secretary Rumsfeld would be able to persuade President Bush to reject the State Department’s approach. (Ha’aretz, The Jerusalem Post)
Ha’aretz reported that the Peace Index for May 2002, conducted by the Tami Steinmetz Institute for Peace at Tel Aviv University on 28-30 May 2002, revealed the following (576 respondents, sampling error estimated at 4.5 per cent): To the question “ In today’s reality, do the settlements contribute to Israel’s national interest, or weaken it?”, a total of 54 per cent of Jewish respondents replied that the settlements considerably or greatly weakened the national interest, while only 35 per cent felt that they considerably or greatly strengthened it. The figures on this issue in a previous index carried out in June 2001 were practically reverse, namely 58 per cent felt then that the settlements contributed to the national interest and 33 per cent that they harmed it. Those prepared to evacuate the settlements under a unilateral separation programme, in order to create an effective buffer zone between Israel and the Palestinians, were 65 per cent, while 27 per cent opposed an evacuation. The corresponding figures in July 2001 were 54 per cent and 38 per cent respectively. Fifty-one per cent supported a unilateral separation, against 36 per cent who favored an immediate resumption of negotiations with the Palestinians. Only 14 per cent believed that a fence or wall could totally prevent terrorist attacks; 60 per cent felt that physical means could reduce them significantly, while 24 per cent did not believe that physical means of separation would have an affect. On the possibility of dividing Jerusalem by a fence, wall or other physical barriers in order to significantly lower the attacks, 69 per cent were opposed and 25 per cent agreed. Sixty-four per cent were opposed to any attempt by the United States “to use every means at its disposal to exert pressure on the sides” to sign an agreement based on the Clinton plan (29 per cent supported this), despite the fact that, according to last month’s findings, a US intervention in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was acceptable to 87 per cent. (Ha’aretz)
State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher said that Washington had been in contact with the Israeli authorities during the military operations targetting Chairman Arafat’s Ramallah HQ. Mr. Boucher said the US had received assurances from Israel that Mr. Arafat would not be harmed during the military operation. Meanwhile, White House national security spokesman Sean McCormack said that it was “not clear what the objective [was] of the Israeli incursion” into Ramallah, adding that the White House had had no advance notice of Israel’s actions. (AFP, Ha’aretz, The Jerusalem Post)
French Foreign Ministry Spokesman François Rivasseau criticized as “counter-productive” Israel’s military operations in Ramallah and Jenin, adding that Israeli actions “in order to be efficient and durable” had to be of a “larger perspective, such as the resumption of peace negotiations.” (XINHUA)
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher, speaking after preparatory talks with Secretary of State Powell ahead of President Mubarak’s scheduled meeting with President Bush, said Egypt was encouraging the US to move fast on bringing about a resumption of negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians. “I think that there is a determination by the US to move as quickly as possible and we would encourage that because the situation as it is prevailing in the occupied territories is very serious and dangerous.” He noted, however, he did not know of any specific US initiative. State Department officials said the US had not offered any such proposals to the parties. President Mubarak brought with him a proposal that the US support the early declaration of a Palestinian State, to give Palestinians hope and reflect the international consensus that a two-State solution was the answer, Mr. Maher said. (Reuters, XINHUA)
7
More than 50 tanks and armed personnel carriers had been deployed in Jenin early in the morning and later on in the Jenin refugee camp, imposing a curfew while conducting house-to-house searches, eyewitnesses said. Army bulldozers had also reportedly entered the town. Moreover, tanks had entered the towns of Qabatiya and Jaba, south of Jenin, with four helicopters opening fire and wounding three Palestinians, Palestinian security sources said. Israeli military sources described the operation as “routine patrols,” adding that it would not be a long-term engagement. The raids came hours after the Israelis had pulled out of Jenin on 6 June, following an incursion carried out in the wake of the previous day’s Megiddo bus bombing. Israeli troops reportedly had also conducted incursions into Bethlehem, Hebron, Ramallah and Tulkarm, arresting at least eight suspected Palestinian militants, including a woman, according to Palestinian sources. An Israeli army spokesman denied the reports, saying that Israeli troops and tanks had not entered into Bethlehem or Hebron. Meanwhile, a Palestinian man died in a hospital from wounds sustained during an Israeli incursion into Qalqilya on 26 May. (AFP, DPA, The Jerusalem Post, Reuters, XINHUA)
The European Commission said that Israel had failed to provide any concrete proof to support its accusations that EU aid was being used by the PA to fund “terrorism.” European Commission Spokesman Gunnar Wiegand said “we can only state that nothing that we have seen, and what is in our possession, goes beyond what was already publicly known. There is no hard evidence corroborating the allegation that EU funds were used for sponsoring terrorism.” He noted that the Commission was still looking at some issues, and in particular had put a number of very concrete questions to the PA Minister of Finance, while declining to provide details until answers were received. The European Parliame nt’s Budget Committee earlier in the week had blocked the release of €18.7 million (US$17.6 million) in budgetary aid to the Palestinians in the light of the accusations. EU External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten and Budget Commissioner Michaele Schr eyer were due to brief the Budget Committee on 19 June in an effort to get the frozen aid released. Mr. Wiegand condemned an article relaying the Israeli charges in the German magazine Die Zeit as ill-researched and unbalanced, saying the paper had made no effort to check its information with the Commission. (Reuters)
PA Minister for Prisoners’ Affairs Hisham Abdel Razeq said at least 7,500 Palestinians had been arrested by the IDF since the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Intifada in September 2000. Mr. Abdel Razeq said that it was the highest number of Palestinians arrested by the Israeli security forces since Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967. He said the Palestinians were detained in 12 jails across Israel, including jails, which had earlier been closed down following the 1993 Oslo peace accords. He said that among the prisoners were 20 women and 170 children under the age of 15, adding that hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in the Israeli jails were living in the worst condition and lacking medical care. He also accused Israel of treating prisoners violently, of using torture and tear gas against them and of holding many of them without indictment or trial. The Israeli army said it was checking the report. (DPA, XINHUA)
8
Palestinian gunmen fired at a cluster of about 15 mobile homes of the “Karmei Tsur” settlement, north of Hebron, killing two Israelis inside and wounding six, two seriously. The mobile homes comprise the “Gilles” outpost of the aforementioned settlement and serve as temporary residence for the new settlers awaiting permanent housing. One attacker was killed by a security guard and another escaped. Israeli troops in armoured vehicles supported by helicopters entered nearby Palestinian towns of Halhul and Beit Ummar in a search for the second gunman. Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, the military wing of Hamas, claimed responsibility for the attack. In a similar incident later the same day, Palestinian gunmen fired on the “Yizhar” settlement south of Nablus, wounding four Israeli soldiers, two seriously. Israel Army Radio reported that one Palestinian was killed and Israeli troops continued their search for two other attackers. The IDF imposed a curfew on several nearby villages the next morning. DFLP took responsibility for the attack. (AFP, AP, DPA)
Two Palestinians died in a confrontation with the Israeli Navy off the shore of a northern Gaza Strip beach. The two were attempting to infiltrate the “Dugit” settlement, Israeli Radio reported. One of the Palestinians was shot and the other apparently drowned. Three other Palestinians belonging to Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, the military wing of Hamas, died in an explosion in southern Gaza Strip. IDF tank shells wounded three Palestinians of the same family, including a six-year-old child, in the Za’areb neighbourhood west of Rafah. Three IDF tanks and a number of jeeps also entered Deir al-Balah refugee camp later in the day, where the troops carried out house-to-house searches. Fourteen Israeli tanks fired heavy machine-guns in the air as they entered the town of Jenin. (AFP, AP, DPA)
President Mubarak’s political advisor Osama Al-Baz, speaking to the Cairo-based Voice of Arabs radio from the US presidential retreat of Camp David in response to a proposal that Israel dismantle settlements in exchange for the waiving of the right of return of Palestinian refugees, said the right of return couldn’t be subject to bargaining. (AFP, XINHUA)
Foreign Ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) started their 83rd session in Jiddah on the Red Sea coast, Kuwaiti news agency KUNA reported. Omani Foreign Minister Yousef Bin Alawi Bin Abdullah, whose country is the current chairman of the GCC session, said in an opening statement that the meeting would deal with political and security affairs in the Gulf, Middle Eastern region and international areas, stressing that the ministers would affirm the GCC States’ commitment to the Arab peace plan for the Middle East, which they considered as a basis for the settlement of the regional crisis. A communiqué at the end of the day condemned Israeli raids on PA areas as an obstacle to peace efforts and reiterated that a Saudi Arabian peace plan for the Middle East was the basis for any negotiations to reach a permanent solution in the area. (DPA, XINHUA)
9
Prime Minister Sharon of Israel rejected a timetable for peace talks in an opinion piece published in The New York Times. President Mubarak of Egypt warned there was little chance of breaking the cycle of violence without concrete gestures and fixed goals to give people hope. (AFP)
Minister of Information and Culture Yasser Abed Rabbo announced the following official list of the new Palestinian cabinet:
Salam Fayad, Minister of Finance
Yasser Abed Rabbo, Minister of Information and Culture
Nabil Shaath, Minister of Planning and International Cooperation
Naim Abul Hummus, Minister of Education
Intissar Al-Wazir, Minister of Social Affairs
Nabil Kassis, Minister of Tourism
Ibrahim Dughmeh, Minister of Justice
Saeb Erakat, Minister of Local Government
Azzam Al-Ahmad, Minister of Housing and Public Works
Maher Al-Masri, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry
Abdelrahman Hamad, Minister of Natural Resources
Riad al-Zaanun, Minister of Health
Mitri Abu Eita, Minister of Transport
Imad Al-Faluji, Minister of Telecommunications
Rafiq Al-Natsheh, Minister of Agriculture
Jamil Al-Tarifi, Minister of Civil Affairs
Abdel Aziz Shahin, Minister of Supply
Ghassan Al-Khatib, Minister of Labour
Abdel Razzek Al-Yehiye, Minister of the Interior
Ali Al-Qawashmeh, Minister of Youth and Sports
The Minister of Waqf and Religious Affairs has not been appointed yet.
(Arabicnews.com, JMCC, Ha’aretz)
Ma’ariv reported that the World Zionist Organization (WZO) project “Rise to Israel of the Rabbi and his Community”, would begin in late June when some 70 to 100 New York families, led by their rabbi Mordechai Tendler, would move into the “Kokhav Ya’aqov” settlement north of Jerusalem. A second group of around 50 families is expected in Israel shortly afterwards from the city of Marseille in France, led by their rabbi Abraham Maimon. (AFP)
10
More than 70 Israeli tanks and troops moved into the centre of Ramallah, setting up base in a building where several international news organizations have their bureaus, and encircled Chairman Arafat’s HQ for the second time in a week, amid heavy clashes throughout Ramallah and the neighbouring Al-Bireh area in which one Palestinian was killed and two were wounded. The IDF imposed a curfew on the city and started house-to-house searches, arresting 20 Palestinians. The troops also entered a Palestinian police station, detained 30 policemen and seized weapons inside, Palestinian sources said. An IDF spokesman said the reoccupation of Ramallah would be of limited time, while the Chief of Staff Gen. Shaul Mofaz said the IDF would remain in the city until it reached every place where wanted militants were hiding. The incursion caused the first meeting of the new Palestinian cabinet to be cancelled. Israeli troops also entered a number of other Palestinian towns and villages in the West Bank, the IDF said, arresting a total of nine Palestinians. (AFP, DPA)
A 13-year-old Palestinian girl was killed and 32 other people injured when an explosion demolished a housing block in Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical sources said. The blast occurred when a bomb handled by militants in a multistorey building detonated accidentally, causing serious damage to the buildings itself and surrounding ones, the sources said. (AFP, DPA)
The EU launched in Jordan the first of a series of workshops to be held around the world on ways of promoting democracy and human rights. Related efforts had been hampered in the Middle East by the ongoing violence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the head of the EU delegation in Jordan James Moran said at the start of the three-day meeting. “In the absence of just and lasting peace … and the very real fears of political, economic and social instability, it is sometimes very difficult for those who wish to advance the agenda for human rights and developments to move forward,” Mr. Moran said. (AFP)
The Russian envoy for the Middle East peace process Andrei Vdovin started talks with Lebanese officials about holding an international peace conference in July and reviving negotiations, after a similar visit to Syria the day before. Speaking after talks with the Lebanese Foreign Minister, Mr. Vdovin said, “We believe that the use of force is not a solution. The solution must have a security track, a political track and an economic track, in parallel with and as part of an international conference that it will be important to hold this summer … We believe the solution must be comprehensive, and must include all concerned States and have their participation, including Syria and Lebanon.” (DPA)
The head of operations for the Palestinian national security forces in Jenin, Col. Abu Edham, was arrested by the IDF on the Israeli side of the Allenby bridge on his way to Jordan where his family resides, Palestinian security sources told AFP. (AFP)
About 50.8 per cent of Palestinians said they believed both Israel and Palestinians had “the right to live in peace and security,” while 35.5 per cent said they opposed peace and security for Israel, according to a survey by the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion in Beit Sahour. 45 per cent of Palestinians said it was not possible for an Israeli and a Palestinian state to co-exist, while 34.3 percent disagreed. 50 per cent said the intifada should continue, while 38 per cent favoured its end; 42.1 per cent said the intifada had harmed the Palestinian cause, while 50 per cent thought it had helped Palestinians. (AFP)
Israeli tanks entered Tulkarm and its refugee camp reportedly for the third time in four days. Tulkarm’s Governor Ezzedine Al-Sharif told AFP that the town and the refugee camp had been reoccupied by some 40 tanks, armed personnel carriers and jeeps, adding that the tanks had opened fire at his house. The soldiers had also carried out house-to-house searches, he said. The IDF also entered Hebron, arresting a dozen people before leaving. In a separate incident, an armed Palestinian was shot and killed by the IDF after he had opened fire on a car carrying settlers on a road close to the settlement of “Gush Kateef” in the south of the Gaza Strip. (AFP)
President Bush and Prime Minister Sharon met in Washington D.C. as Israeli tanks surrounded Mr. Arafat’s compound in Ramallah. With reference to the Israeli action, President Bush said that “Israel has a right to defend herself, and at the same time that Israel does so, the Prime Minister is willing to discuss the conditions necessary to achieve what we want, which is a secure region and a hopeful region.” President Bush said that he and Mr. Sharon had discussed “reforms necessary that would enable a Palestinian Authority to emerge” that would give Israel and the Palestinians confidence to move ahead in peacemaking. While referring to a Middle East conference, President Bush replied that “the conditions are not even there yet. That is because no one has confidence in the emerging Palestinian Government.” Palestinian Minister of Local Government, Saeb Erakat, told Reuters that Mr. Bush’s comments were “a disappointment to all those who seek to make peace, and to all those who are trying to put the peace process back on the right track,” adding that the President had shown an “ absence of seriousness” by not setting a date for a Middle East conference. (AFP, Ha’aretz, The Jerusalem Post, Reuters)
In Ramallah, the IDF had arrested the local head of the Islamic Jihad, Defence Minister Ben-Eliezer told Israeli state radio, without giving the name of the man. The Minister also said the Israelis planned to stay “a day or two” in Ramallah, adding that they had no intention of entering Chairman Arafat’s compound. The IDF said at least 27 wanted militants had been arrested in the sweep. Palestinian witnesses said about 100 people had been rounded up and a number may have been released following questioning. (AFP)
11
With the number of suspected Palestinian militants arrested reaching 31, IDF tanks continued for a second day to surround Chairman Arafat’s HQ in Ramallah “to prevent terrorists from trying to take refuge there to escape arrest,” an army spokesman said. Meanwhile, an IDF unit withdrew at dawn from the Dheisheh refugee camp near Bethlehem, where it had launched a limited operation overnight. “It was a patrol sent out in search of wanted Palestinians, which withdrew without taking any prisoners,” the spokesman said adding that two Palestinians had been arrested in Hebron. Palestinian officials said two Palestinians had been wounded by Israeli gunfire in the town of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. Moreover witnesses said troops had entered the villages of Husan and Battir west of Bethlehem and conducted house searches. In a separate incident, Hamas said that one of its militants had been killed while carrying out an attack near the Karni crossing point between the northern Gaza Strip and Israel. The IDF confirmed to AFP that a Palestinian had been killed when an explosive charge detonated against a security fence. In a separate incident, a bomb exploded near an armoured bus near the “Qiryat Arba” settlement outside the city of Hebron, injuring three teenaged students from the settlement. (AFP, DPA, Financial Times Limited, Ha’aretz, Reuters)
A Palestinian suicide bomber had blown himself up wounding at least 15 people, including one seriously, at a restaurant in the town of Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv, Israeli police said. Israeli radio said the badly hurt victim was a teenage girl, who later died. The PA in a statement condemned the attack, saying that “the Palestinian Authority will do its utmost to stop attacks against civilians inside Israel, but these efforts need an immediate lifting of the closure and an end to aggression by the occupation army against our people, land, the Palestinian Authority itself and its security apparatus.” (AFP, Ha’aretz, The Jerusalem Post, Reuters)
Israeli public radio quoted Foreign Minister Peres as saying that he was against setting conditions for Middle East peace talks, also noting that he was against denying Chairman Arafat a political role in negotiations. (EFE)
Palestinian Minister for Civil Affairs Jamil Al-Tarifi told AFP that his son, who was the public prosecutor for the Ramallah area, had been arrested by the IDF in Ramallah, in “an operation of intimidation aimed at proving that the Israeli soldiers can act where they want,” Mr. Al-Tarifi said. (AFP)
The Foreign Press Association (FPA) issued a statement condemning the IDF’ s decision to declare Ramallah a “closed military zone” when troops re-entered the city on 10 June. The FPA said the declaration, which bars journalists from entering the city except under a pool arrangement with the IDF, was “a violation of basic press freedoms” and demanded unimpeded reporting of events there. An Israeli Government spokesman declined to comment on the statement. The statement also criticized the IDF’s occupation of the Ramallah office of Reuters on 10 June, noting it was the second time the office had been taken over by the army in recent months. The FPA also condemned the detention of Reuters cameraman Jussry Al-Jamal, photographer Hussam Abu Alan of AFP, and photographer Khalil Hamr, an occasional contributor to AP . “In these cases, and in others that preceded them, the media organizations involved were provided with no indication of the reasons of the arrest beyond the most general of allegations,” the statement said. (Reuters)
Israeli forces had arrested the deputy leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and PLO Executive Committee member Abdel-Rahim Mallouh at his home in Ramallah, Palestinian and Israeli officials said. “ The Executive Committee of the PLO and the Palestinian National Authority strongly condemn the arrest” and “call for his immediate release and an end to similar actions”, the PA said in a statement. “The arrest is an extremely dangerous precedent because it targeted a senior member of the PLO political leadership”, PA Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said, noting that “this constitutes a grave violation of all agreements signed”. A PFLP statement issued in Damascus “warn[ed] the enemy against any toying with the life of comrade Mallouh, which would not be dealt with lightly, and demand[ed] his release immediately”. According to an IDF spokeswoman, 64 persons had been taken into custody up to that point during the latest reoccupation of Ramallah. (AFP, DPA, Reuters, XINHUA)
Israeli troops shot dead five Palestinian militants in a foiled bomb attack near the “Netzarim” settlement in the Gaza Strip. Preparation of the attack was claimed jointly by the Popular Resistance armed wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades. An eight-year-old Palestinian child had also been killed by Israeli army gunfire in the same area, reportedly as he was leaving his home in the mostly-Bedouin village of Al-Mughraqa to go and buy sweets; two other boys had been wounded. (AFP, Reuters)
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In an interview published in Al-Hayat, Secretary of State Powell said Chairman Arafat was the elected leader of the Palestinian people and the US acknowledged this. Moreover, Mr. Powell was quoted as saying that “[Prime Minister Sharon] knows clearly that we do not agree with his position that he ought not to work with President Arafat … We are continuing to work with President Arafat”. He stated that there would be an international meeting or conference this summer and that President Bush “has not retreated from his goal, which is the setting up of a Palestinian State called Palestine… He knows that in order to achieve this vision it might be necessary to set up a temporary State, as a transitional step, and perhaps several steps before this end.” (DPA, Reuters)
The Israeli occupation of Ramallah continued for a third day. “We are still patrolling and it's still a closed military zone”, an IDF spokesman said, adding that the curfew imposed on the town had been lifted for three hours to allow local residents to do their shopping. Tanks and troops continued to surround Chairman Arafat’s HQ. The IDF later withdrew from Ramallah, encircling it in order to be “ready to enter again if required for security reasons, Israeli military sources said.” About 75 Palestinians had been arrested and many weapons had been confiscated during their occupation, the sources said. Separately, three Palestinians had been wounded, one seriously, in fighting east of Hebron, Palestinian witnesses said. A 16-year-old Palestinian had died of gunshot injuries sustained during a confrontation with the Israeli army on 2 June in southern Gaza, a hospital source said. (AFP, Reuters)
Addressing the European Parliament in Strasbourg, King Abdullah II of Jordan called on Europe to play a “leadership role” in launching a new Middle East peace process with clear goals and deadlines. He upheld the Arab peace proposals adopted at the Beirut Summit last March as “strongly balanced” but stressed the need for an international coalition to underpin peace efforts, arguing that a coalition of the US, the EU, Russia and Arab States was needed to provide the two sides with economic, political and security support. Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Al-Muashar told reporters after the King’s speech that the world was realizing that “To call for pacifying the security system first, to call for reform first, before we start a political process is not going to lead us anywhere”. (AFP, DPA, Reuters)
According to a survey published by the Palestinian Jerusalem Media and Communication Center (JMCC), 51 per cent of the Palestinians interviewed said the aim of the intifada should be “liberating all of historic Palestine”, while 43 per cent said the goal should be ending the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and establishing a Palestinian State; 3.5 per cent said the intifada should boost the Palestinians’ negotiating position. Nearly 66 per cent of Palestinians surveyed said the Israeli incursions increased their support for the suicide bombings, while 15 per cent said their backing had diminished and 15 per cent gave their position as unchanged. The JMCC conducted the survey in late May and early June among 1,179 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip; the margin of error was given as 3 per cent. (AFP)
Following publication of his interview in Al-Hayat, Secretary of State Powell sought to clarify that a future “ provisional” Palestinian State should have a territory and institutions even if they were not perfectly defined. He also said that there was no “distance” between his position and that of the White House. (AFP)
At a meeting between Defence Minister Ben-Eliezer and IDF commanders, a decision was made to dismantle a number of “illegal” settlements in the West Bank, a senior Israeli official said. However, they postponed a decision as to when such a step would be taken, pending a review to determine which of the outposts erected since 1995 were “illegal” or not Government-authorized. According to media reports, as many as 60 such makeshift outposts of trailers and tents have been set up throughout the West Bank in the last seven years. The commanders reportedly discussed the removal of dozens of isolated hilltop encampments, reportedly due to concern about their vulnerability to terror attacks. (The Jerusalem Post)
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The IDF withdrawal from Ramallah reportedly had enabled the new Palestinian Cabinet announced on 9 June to hold its first meeting. In an opening speech, Chairman Arafat said he was committed to pursuing Palestinian-Israeli peace. He also reiterated plans for holding new elections saying that “municipal elections [would] be held as soon as possible and legislative and presidential elections [would] be held in either December or January.” (Reuters)
Shortly after the IDF had withdrawn from Ramallah, 20 Israeli armoured vehicles entered the town of Toubas, located between Nablus and Jenin. Palestinian security sources said troops had arrested 11 security force members at two sites before blowing up their buildings and had detained nine people in house-to-house searches. Two soldiers and three Palestinians had been wounded during the operation. Witnesses said troops had also entered the village of Beit Furik near Nablus and had arrested seven people. During an incursion in Rafah five Palestinians, including a Fatah official, had been arrested. In the Arroub refugee camp, near Hebron, a female teacher suspected of planning a suicide bombing was arrested. Other villages near Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Hebron were targeted by Israeli units, which reportedly had made several arrests. Five Palestinians and three Israeli soldiers had been reported wounded in exchanges of fire near the “Neve Dekalim” settlement. An Israeli military spokesman said the soldiers were wounded when mortar bombs, which had been fired from a Palestinian-controlled area landed near their position. Palestinian medical sources said the Pales tinians had been hit by return Israeli fire. (AFP, DPA, The Jerusalem Post, Reuters)
White House Spokesman Ari Fleischer said President Bush had had a “warm” meeting with the Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia, Prince Saud Al-Faisal and that he was not ready to make a declaration on the establishment of a Palestinian State. (AFP)
President Bush told reporters that he “strongly believe[d] … we must build the institutions necessary for the evolution of a Palestinian State which can live peacefully in the region and provide hope for the suffering Palestinian people”. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the possibility of moving the Middle East peace process forward by declaring a temporary Palestinian State was “one of the many things” that the President was looking at. Mr. Bush was expected to outline, perhaps as early as next week, the way forward on his vision for Middle East peace. (AFP, Reuters)
G8 Foreign Ministers, meeting at Whistler, Canada, agreed on the need for a special Middle East peace conference, conceding that many obstacles would have to be overcome before it could take place. “I think the impediment at the moment is making sure the necessary parties recognize both the need for the conference, accept what the conference will contain and then are willing to come,” said Canadian Foreign Minister Bill Graham, who chaired the meeting. “That work remains to be done but I am confident that with good will, and particularly the support of major parties … that it can be achieved”, he told a closing news conference. EU High Representative Javier Solana and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov were in favour of setting a timetable for a Middle East peace settlement. Secretary of State Powell told reporters President Bush was assessing various ideas on the Middle East crisis and would release a statement “in due course” on the way to move forward. He noted that peace efforts must continue even in the face of more violence, because “otherwise we allow the terrorists to make a judgement for the rest of us”. (AFP, DPA, Reuters)
According to Israeli public television, Foreign Minister Peres had recently renewed contacts with senior Palestinian officials, including Palestinian Council Speaker Ahmed Qurei and PA Minister and senior negotiator Saeb Erakat on a regional peace conference, adding that Mr. Peres had informed Prime Minister Sharon on these contacts. Mr. Peres confirmed the reports about the contacts but said they were “only preliminary … to sound out the possibilities of moving forward”. He noted that the effort was complicated by “the climate of mistrust” that had set in, and “reciprocal good will” was missing at this point. Mr. Peres would not name the Palestinian officials he was in touch with and stressed that he had “no intention” of speaking with Chairman Arafat. Separately, Mr. Erakat denied that he and Mr. Qurei had held meetings with Mr. Peres to discuss the peace conference. However, Mr. Erakat told Al-Jazeera that he was “mandated to hold contacts with the Israeli side over many issues”, such as humanitarian questions and arrests of Palestinians. (AFP, DPA, Ha’aretz, XINHUA)
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European Commission spokesman Gunnar Wiegand said the Commission had investigated charges made by Israeli Cabinet Minister Danny Naveh last month that EU aid to the Palestinian Authority had been used to fund terrorists and had considered them to be without foundation. Israeli military intelligence officials who had met EU and IMF representatives the previous week had failed to provide any evidence to corroborate the allegations, he added. (Ha’aretz, Reuters)
Israeli troops had raided Hebron overnight, taking three Palestinians prisoner and destroying an explosives workshop, an Israeli military spokesman said. Also according to the IDF, Israeli troops had shot dead a Palestinian after he had attacked a Jewish settler with a knife at a filling station near Nablus. The shooting had occurred a few hours after the Israeli army had withdrawn from the town of Toubas, north of Nablus, ending an incursion of nearly 24 hours. A total of 26 Palestinians had been arrested during the operation, six of whom had been on Israel’s “wanted list”. An Israeli tank had opened fire on a taxi full of Palestinian women near Jenin, wounding three of them, an AFP correspondent at the scene said. According to Palestinian sources, Israeli army jeeps and military trucks had briefly entered the town of Birzeit, north of Ramallah, arresting two Hamas members, as well as the director of Ramallah’s post office. (AFP, DPA, Reuters, XINHUA)
In a report on the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing Miloon Kothari said “The policies of belligerent occupation and collective punishment have been marked by land confiscations, punitive house demolitions, implantation of settlements, the dismemberment of Palestinian territories through the building of bypass roads … and the control or theft of water and other natural resources in the occupied territories”. “A particularly destructive strategy has involved the use of missiles, tanks, and the Israeli army’s practice of ‘walking through the walls’ used serially to damage homes,” during recent incursions, he added. His recommendations included reparations for Palestinians whose homes and land had been confiscated, damaged or destroyed. Mr. Kothari said the international community had a duty to intervene and called for an international protection force that would have the protection of Palestinian homes and land as its priority. He also reiterated calls for a halt to all settlement activity and the dismantlement of Israeli settlements. (AFP)
US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs William Burns had hosted a luncheon meeting in Washington with Quartet representatives Andrei Vdovin of Russia, Miguel Moratinos of the EUand Terje Rød-Larsen of the UN, deputy State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said, declining to comment on the substance of the discussions the four had. (AFP, Reuters)
Following his meeting in Washington with Secretary of State Powell, PA Minister for Planning and International Cooperation Nabil Shaath told reporters that without a timeline a resumed peace process could make no real progress and suggested that “a year for negotiations and a year for implementation is a very reasonable timeline”. Secretary Powell had held separate talks during that day with IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Shaul Mofaz, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal and Mr. Shaath. (AFP)
Israeli tanks reoccupied Tulkarm and the adjoining refugee camp and imposed a curfew. An IDF spokeswoman justified the incursion saying that there had been warnings of a possible terrorist attack from that area. (AFP)
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An IDF spokesman said that an Israeli patrol searching an area of agricultural land near the “Dugit” settlement in the Gaza Strip had been ambushed by Palestinian militants, armed with guns and hand grenades, who had opened fire, killing two soldiers and wounding four others, one seriously. One of the group of three or more Palestinians had also been killed, while the others Palestinians had fled. The attack was claimed by Hamas’ military wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassem Brigades. Palestinian security sources said Israeli tanks had opened fire with shells and machine guns on the nearby villages of Sudaniya and Beit Lahia, following the shoot-out near “Dugit”. (AFP)
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Construction of an initial 115-km section of a security fence between Israel and the West Bank started officially in the presence of Defence Minister Ben-Eliezer, at the Salem checkpoint, near the Arab Israeli village of Kfar Salem, on Israel’s border with the northern West Bank. (AFP, Ha’aretz, Reuters)
At the weekly Cabinet meeting Prime Minister Sharon said he had raised, inter alia, the following points during his talks in the United States:
– There will be no progress of any kind in the diplomatic process until there is a cessation of terrorism, violence and incitement.
– In order to participate in any diplomatic activities, the Palestinians must – in addition to halting the terror – implement substantial reforms in all facets of life, including the electoral process.
– There will be no change in the Palestinian Authority, and its path, without a substantial change in its method of financial oversight and security mechanisms.
– Definition of timetables for any process is a mistake. It should be in relation to proven results in the field.
– All future negotiations will be bilateral between Israel and the Palestinians. Israel will not agree to discuss its future in any international frameworks of any kind.
– Israel will not return to the 1967 borders.
– Discussion of settlements is part of the permanent agreement discussions. Regarding the ‘Palestinian State’ issue – the conditions are not ripe for discussing the subject.
– After implementation of substantial reforms in the Palestinian Authority, the cessation of terror and the holding of general elections – Israel will be prepared to partake in discussions on the subject.
– Prime Minister Sharon also referred to the purpose of the regional conference in his talks in the US. The results of the conference should be the creation of teams to supervise the processes of change in the Palestinian Authority, and working teams for discussions on regional issues.
– Prime Minister Sharon expressed his opinion that no terror States or States supporting terror should be invited to the regional conference, and expressed the expectations that states that participate in the conference will recognize Israel and establish relations with it.”
At the same meeting, Defence Minister Ben-Eliezer stated that the security fence under construction was intended strictly for security needs and had no political significance. The Government would hold discussions on this topic in the following days. (See Press Releases, Prime Minister’s Office, http://www.pmo.gov.il )
A Palestinian had been shot dead by Israeli troops while trying to circumvent an army roadblock near Nablus, witnesses said. A Palestinian carrying a large suspicious bag had been shot after ignoring warning shots and shouts and two other Palestinians had been arrested, an IDF spokesman said. (AFP, Reuters)
Newly-appointed PA Interior Minister General Abdel Razzek Al-Yahiya said he would not allow militias within the Palestinian areas and criticized suicide attacks against Israelis as harming the Palestinian cause. “All the forces and factions should turn to political work within the framework of the Palestinian Authority, whether they support it or not,” he noted. The Minister said he was working “on two parallel issues”, “First, restructuring the Ministry of Interior and attaching to it the two main security forces, and second, controlling the situation on the ground, particularly as regards security issues,” adding that this would not be an easy task. (DPA)
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The IDF had totally destroyed two Palestinian factories at an industrial zone east of Gaza City, a Palestinian public security statement said, adding that the Israeli army bulldozers, supported by jeeps, armoured vehicles and troops, bulldozed first the land in front of the two factories and then the factories themselves. Palestinian sources said one of the factories produced wood for construction and furniture, while the other was the sole producer of medical oxygen for hospitals in the Gaza Strip. The IDF said the industrial complex had been a launching point for militant attacks. In a separate incident, Israeli soldiers had shot dead a member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, as he drove his car through Al-Khader village, near Bethlehem, Palestinian witnesses said. Israeli Army Radio said the Palestinian had been shot by Israeli snipers and he had been recruiting suicide bombers for the Brigades. (Reuters, XINHUA)
Referring to the Israeli security fence, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said that “The decision is made by Israel, and as we have noted, Israel has the right to defend herself”, noting though that it was “important for all parties to keep in mind the consequences of the actions they take and the need to continue working together toward two States living side by side in peace”. US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher, speaking on the same subject, said that “To the extent that it affects ordinary Palestinians, I think we do remind the Israelis that offering hope to Palestinians, offering them a decent life, an end to the barriers is an important part of achieving security and peace and that remains on our agenda”. He noted further that the “issue of borders between Israel living side-by-side with a future Palestinian State is one that needs to be resolved through negotiation” and the US “always opposed unilateral attempts to try to decide these issues”. (AFP, Reuters, XINHUA)
After talks with Secretary-General Kofi Annan in New York, PA Minister for Planning and International Cooperation Nabil Shaath said he hoped the anticipated US statement on Middle East peace would “this time” be seen by the Palestinian and Arab people “as fair, as committed to international legality, as really balanced and as clear about time and commitment of the United States”. Acknowledging the many pressures on President Bush, Mr. Shaath said it was important that he took on the task, as otherwise there would be no progress due to Israeli intransigence. “We are actually entering a new era of cooperation with the United States”, he noted, adding that Washington appeared open to the Saudi-inspired Arab peace initiative. On the idea of a provisional State, Mr. Shaath said “You can have a provisional Government or a provisional Cabinet but you can’t have a provisional State”, adding that “It is either a State or not a State and we hope … the only thing that is going to be provisional about it is the fact that parts of its territory are still occupied and need to be liberated through the peace process”. (Reuters)
President Bush deferred for another six months the process of moving the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. In a letter to Secretary of State Powell released by the White House, Mr. Bush cited national security as the grounds for his decision, adding that “my Administration remains committed to beginning the process of moving our embassy to Jerusalem”. (Reuters, XINHUA)
Following a decision by EU Foreign Ministers, four Palestinian groups were added on the EU list of terrorist organizations. They were the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command and the Palestine Liberation Front. The list was published in the official EU journal on 18 June. (DPA, Reuters)
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A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up on a bus full of schoolchildren and office workers during the morning rush hour at the “Pat Junction” in southern Jerusalem, killing 19 people and wounding scores. Prime Minister Sharon vowed to fight “Palestinian terror” as he surveyed the damage caused by the attack, for which Hamas claimed responsibility. The PA denounced the bombing, denied the accusations it was to blame and pledged to hunt down those responsible, saying such attacks hurt the Palestinian cause. It also called for US help to stop Israeli attacks on Palestinian areas, which it said hindered its security forces. The suicide bombing was strongly condemned by, among others, President Bush, Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Piqué on behalf of the EU Presidency, EU High Representative Javier Solana, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, newly appointed French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, the Chinese Foreign Ministry and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson. (AFP, DPA, Reuters, XINHUA)
Secretary-General Kofi Annan made the following remarks at the start of a speech to UN Goodwill Ambassadors at UN Headquarters in New York:
Following the suicide bombing in Jerusalem, the Israeli Cabinet decided to strengthen the military operations in the Palestinian-controlled areas of the West Bank, Israel Radio said, adding that dozens of Israeli army tanks, bulldozers and armored vehicles, as well as infantry troops, had entered Jenin. In a separate incident, Israeli forces had killed a senior Islamic Jihad militant wanted for the killing of two international monitors in the West Bank in March, Israeli security sources said. According to Palestinian security sources, he had been shot during an identity check at an army roadblock near Hebron. The IDF had tried three times to seize him at his Hebron home last month. (Reuters, XINHUA)
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IDF troops entered Tulkarm in an effort to locate militants believed to be on the verge of committing suicide attacks. The local head of the PA military intelligence service was killed in an exchange of fire with Israeli troops who were trying to arrest him. Two IDF soldiers were also killed in the firefight and four wounded. (Ha’aretz)
A Palestinian suicide bomber got out of a car at the French Hill Junction in East Jerusalem, and as the Border Police approached him, he ran to the bus stop where he detonated the explosives, killing himself and seven Israelis and wounding more than 50, with four in critical condition. According to Al-Manar TV station, the attack was planned by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades. (Ha’aretz)
Following Prime Minister Sharon’s discussions with the leaders of the Israeli political parties in the coalition and top security officials, the Government of Israel reportedly decided to take several military actions against the PA, including a response to acts of terror by capturing PA territory. Reoccupied areas would be held by Israel as long as terror continued, with additional acts of terror leading to the taking of additional areas. The first such step, in response to suicide bombings in Jerusalem on 18 and 19 June, would be taken shortly, the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement. Foreign Minister Peres said he did not believe that the extended security cabinet gave approval for this decision, while Defence Minister Ben-Eliezer said earlier the same day that he opposed retaking Area “A” and pointed out that the IDF would remain in some PA-controlled areas for “a week, two weeks or three.” The Palestinian leadership condemned the plan in its official statement released the next day. (albawaba.com, Ha’aretz, Israeli PM Office press release at www.pmo.gov.il, Reuters, full text of the PA statement at www.wafa.pna.net/EngText/20-06-2002/page002.htm)
Prime Minister Sharon, on a visit to the construction site of the security barrier, decided that the barrier should pass east of the “Alfei Menasheh” settlement, which would move it more than 4km into the West Bank, almost entirely fencing off the town of Qalqilya that would be connected to the rest of the West Bank by only one road. (AFP, Ha’aretz)
Israel Radio reported that Israeli officials were making preparations for the expulsion of senior PA officials, though the security cabinet decided against deporting Chairman Arafat. The radio did not specify which PA leaders might be deported, and quoted unnamed senior Israeli officials as saying that captured Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti would not be expelled, but would be put on trial, though it was yet to be decided if it would be a military or civilian trial. (AFP, Ha’aretz)
Fifty-five Palestinian officials, academics, writers and community leaders, including Hanan Ashrawi and Sari Nusseibeh, appealed for a halt to suicide bombings. “We appeal to those who stand behind the military operations to rethink and reconsider these actions, and to stop sending young men to carry out such attacks targeting civilians in Israel,” said the document, published as a full-page ad in the Al-Quds daily. The appeal called such attacks a “gift” to Prine Minister Sharon and the extreme right in Israel “to continue their aggression and attacks against the Palestinian people.” (AP, Ha’aretz)
An Israeli military court rejected appeals for the immediate release of two Palestinian journalists employed by Reuters and AFP, their lawyer, Mohammed Burgal, said. However, the military court had agreed the day before that it would release Reuters cameraman Jussry al-Jamal on 10 July, three weeks before the scheduled end of his three-month term of detention without charges. Administrative detention is a holdover from the British Mandatory rule in Palestine and allows the Government to hold people for months without charges if they are deemed to be a threat to national security. (AFP, Reuters)
According to a LAW press release, Palestinian female political prisoners in Ramle prison were being sexually harassed, in particular through strip searches, and plan to start a hunger strike if their conditions did not improve. (WAFA)
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Twelve Israeli tanks entered Tulkarm prompting firefights with Palestinian gunmen, and a curfew was imposed on the town, the district’s governor Izz ad-Din al-Sharif told AFP. The IDF also entered Bethlehem, the adjacent Dheisheh refugee camp, part of Beitunia, a suburb southwest of Ramallah, and three villages west of Nablus. A large military presence was maintained in Jenin and Qalqilya, where a pregnant woman was killed when IDF troops fired at the building she was in. In Jenin refugee camp, up to 300 Palestinians were loaded on to six buses and taken away for questioning. The IDF said troops carried out searches, imposed curfews and made a number of arrests. “Forces will stay in the cities until they achieve their operational aims,” it said. In a separate incident, Israeli troops, in a raid on the village of Wadi al-Salqa, just south of Deir al-Balah in the Gaza Strip, arrested six Palestinians, all members of the same family, and destroyed crops and uprooted dozens of olive trees, the village’s mayor told AFP. Israeli helicopter gunships fired missiles at targets in Gaza City and in the south, wounding six people. Separately, the IDF dynamited the offices of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) in Jenin, the group said. (AFP, AP, DPA, Reuters)
Chairman Arafat, speaking to reporters outside his HQ in Ramallah said “I personally, and the PA, are completely against it [the attacks].” His written statement, read out by an announcer on Voice of Palestine radio and published in newspapers, referred to the “necessity to completely stop these attacks … to preserve the high national interest.” Hamas and Islamic Jihad refused to comply with the appeal to cease violence against Israeli civilians and said such attacks would continue as long as Israel kept killing Palestinian civilians. (Reuters)
Maj.-Gen. Yitzhak Eitan, GOC Central Command, issued an order that effectively makes it illegal for Palestinians to be employed by West Bank settlements, Israel Radio reported. The order declares all settlements closed military zones to anyone who is not an Israeli citizen. According to Ha’aretz, at least 120,000 Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank had jobs in Israel before the beginning of the current intifada. (Reuters, Ha’aretz)
The IDF reportedly began a limited call-up of reserve soldiers, with Israeli media saying specific reserve units would be mobilized to reinforce conscripts on active duty, probably in prolonged incursions into the PA areas of the West Bank. (Reuters)
In a statement to the Security Council, UN Secretary-General said that while many of those present were doing their best to help bring peace to the region, “in the absence of a renewed and sustained political process events will continue to be driven by those who are doing their best to prevent peace.” According to the Secretary-General, the fundamental issues at the core of the conflict are “the continuing Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory and the absence of security for Israel. Further, the acts of terrorism against Israel and the dire humanitarian and economic conditions in the West Bank and Gaza Strip must also be addressed. To find a permanent solution, we need to tackle all these issue urgently, in parallel and without preconditions. First and foremost, any lasting solution of this conflict can only be based on an end to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory and the withdrawal of Israel’s settlements from it. There will be neither peace nor security as long as the occupation continues. Security Council resolution 242 identified the basic formula for ending this conflict 35 years ago: land for peace. There is an international consensus on the establishment of a State of Palestine, living side-by-side in peace with its neighbour Israel, with both states enjoying internationally recognised, secure borders. Only an end to the occupation can make such a peace possible.” (UN News Service, XINHUA)
Two Palestinians infiltrated the “Itamar” settlement in the West Bank, south-west of Nablus, killing five Israelis, including a mother and three of her children, and wounding several other persons. IDF troops killed both attackers. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed responsibility for the attack in an announcement broadcast on Al-Manar TV and in a phone call to AP. After the attack, a group of armed Israeli settlers from “Itamar” in ten cars entered the Burin section of Huwwara, a Palestinian town in Area “B” south of Nablus, shooting one Palestinian resident in the chest and killing him and setting a house and three cars ablaze. (AP, DPA, Reuters)
Israeli Defence Minister Ben-Eliezer questioned two detained Palestinians who planned to carry out suicide bombings, including a 20-year-old woman from Ramallah who told him she changed her mind at the last minute because she could not bear to kill mothers, children and teenagers. “While the army is carrying out these necessary actions … the military actions kindle the frustration, hatred and despair and are the incubator for terror to come,” Mr. Ben-Eliezer told Ha’aretz afterwards. (Reuters)
In an interview with Ha’aretz reporter Akiva Eldar, in Ramallah, Chairman Arafat said “enough is enough” and supported the call by 55 Palestinian public figures to stop attacks against civilians in Israel. Chairman Arafat also declared his acceptance of the Clinton proposal and his support for border corrections and territorial exchanges, as well as Israeli sovereignty over, and access to, the Western Wall and the Old City’s Jewish Quarter. (AP, Ha’aretz)
Delegates at the closing of the annual conference of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), backed the creation of a Palestinian employment fund, but did neither adopt a draft resolution condemning Israeli practices nor a proposal from Arab representatives for a permanent commission to oversee developments in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The employment fund initiative was backed by Israel, the US and Arab countries, especial Gulf States that pledged funding. Preliminary ILO estimates released last month said unemployment in the OPT had reached nearly 43 per cent in the first three months of the year. (AFP)
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In apparent retaliation for the attack on the “Itamar” settlement the day before, a dozen IDF tanks and APCs penetrated more than 1km into the eastern part of Nablus, while other armoured units headed for the town from other directions, according to Palestinian security officials. (Reuters)
Israeli tanks opened fire on the market in Jenin, killing four Palestinians, including three children, hospital officials said. Twenty-six people were injured. Palestinian residents said they saw tanks withdrawing and believed Israeli forces had lifted the 3-day curfew before the shooting. Witnesses said the market area already was full of shoppers when the Israelis fired tank shells and machine-guns into the crowds. A six-year-old girl and a 50-year-old man were the first to be struck down by the random fire, Palestinian medical sources said. Minutes later, a six-year-old boy and his 12-year-old brother were killed by an Israeli tank shell in the same area. The IDF said soldiers searching homes in the city spotted a group of Palestinians who had broken the curfew and were heading towards the soldiers, and the troops fired two tank shells to deter the crowd from approaching. “An initial inquiry indicates that the force erred in its action,” an IDF statement said. Also in Jenin, Palestinians security officials said a 13-year-old Palestinian boy had been killed and seven other people had been wounded when Israeli troops blew up an empty building which had caused a nearby building to collapse. (AFP, AP, Reuters)
At the industrial park near the “Erez” (Beit Hanoun) crossing between Israel and Gaza, a Palestinian threw a grenade at Israeli soldiers, who fired back, killing the attacker and two Palestinian workers, the military and Israel Radio said. Also in Gaza, a 10-year-old boy was killed when Israeli troops opened fire at a group of Palestinian children and an AP reporter and photographer on a road, as soldiers tore down a Palestinian police post. (AP)
An eight-year-old Palestinian boy was killed inside his house by Israeli tank fire south of Gaza City and seven other Palestinians were wounded, Palestinian security sources said. No clashes were taking place at the time, but tanks had moved into the neighbourhood of Sheikh Ajlin, near the “Netzarim” settlement, earlier in the day and were firing at pedestrians and houses there, the sources said. A Palestinian woman and her two children and two other young girls were wounded in their homes, and a Palestinian man and woman were wounded, as they were walking south of Sheikh Ajlin. At the boy’s funeral, a man with a loudspeaker claiming to speak for Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades and the Islamic Jihad said the two groups were responsible for a rocket attack on an Israeli army post near the “Netzarim” settlement, south of Gaza City, that wounded an Israeli soldier and a settler. An IDF statement earlier said an Israeli soldier was lightly wounded by rocket fire but made no mention of a settler being hurt. The army reacted by blasting a naval police station, it said. (AFP)
Israeli tanks entered the village of Wadi Birqin, west of Jenin, where the IDF imposed a curfew and rounded up 400 Palestinian men aged between 15 and 50. The men were then put on army buses and APCs and taken to the “Salem” military base on the outskirts of Jenin, Palestinian security sources said. (AFP)
The security cabinet decided to order the IDF to reenter Palestinian cities in the West Bank and to carry out operations there “as long as is needed.” The decision was a compromise between Prime Minister Sharon’ ;s proposal that the IDF remain in the cities “for a prolonged period of time” and the position of Defence Minister Ben-Eliezer that military action be limited to the period of time needed to achieve operational results. (Ha’aretz)
UNRWA issued an appeal for US$55.7 million to rebuild Jenin and other Palestinian refugee camps heavily damaged by Israel’s military offensive in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The funds would also help repair roads and water, electricity and sewage systems, and buy food and medicines. (Reuters)
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Israeli troops shot and seriously wounded a Palestinian teenager in Rafah, Palestinian security and medical sources said. The 15-year-old had been hit in the back and was “in critical condition”, a medical source told AFP. Security sources confirmed the report and said there was no fighting in the area to justify the shooting. In separate incidents, Israeli troops had fired rubber bullets at a school in the Dheisheh camp, just south of Bethlehem, wounding three Palestinian students, medical sources said. A 12-year-old child was hit in the head. Of the other two, one was hit in the hand and one in the stomach, without being life-threatening. In another incident, an Israeli tank had fired at An-Najah University in Nablus, causing damage to the science building and the main gate, witnesses told AFP. No one had been wounded in the shooting, they said. (AFP)
The Council of the European Union met in Seville, Spain, on 21 and 22 June 2002, adopting, among other things, the “Declaration on the Middle East”. Below is the full text of the Declaration, as contained in the Presidency Conclusions:
DECLARATION ON THE MIDDLE EAST
The crisis in the Middle East has reached a dramatic turning point. Further escalation will render the situation uncontrollable. The parties on their own cannot find a solution. There is an urgent need for political action by the whole international community. The Quartet has a key role to play in starting a peace process.
The European Council supports the early convening of an international conference. That conference should address political and economic aspects as well as matters relating to security. It should confirm the parameters of the political solution and establish a realistic and well-defined timescale.
The European Council strongly condemns all terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians. The peace process and the stability of the region cannot be hostage to terrorism. The fight against terrorism must go on; but so at the same time must the negotiation of a political solution.
A settlement can be achieved through negotiation, and only through negotiation. The objective is an end to the occupation and the early establishment of a democratic, viable, peaceful and sovereign State of Palestine, on the basis of the 1967 borders, if necessary with minor adjustments agreed by the parties. The end result should be two States living side by side within secure and recognized borders enjoying normal relations with their neighbours. In this context, a fair solution should be found to the complex issue of Jerusalem, and a just, viable and agreed solution to the problem of the Palestinian refugees.
The reform of the Palestinian Authority is essential. The European Council expects the PA to make good its commitment to security reform, early elections and political and administrative reform. The European Union reaffirms its willingness to continue to assist in these reforms.
Military operations in the Occupied Territories must cease. Restrictions on freedom of movement must be lifted. Walls will not bring peace.
The European Union stands ready to contribute fully to peace-building, as well as to the reconstruction of the Palestinian economy as an integral part of regional development.
The European Union will work with the parties and with its partners in the international community, especially with the United States in the framework of the Quartet, to pursue every opportunity for peace and for a decent future for all the people of the region.
(AFP, DPA, EU Spanish Presidency web site http://www.ue2002.es , Reuters)
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At its weekly meeting, the Israeli Cabinet approved a security concept of the “seam area”, which would include a 115 km security fence east of the Green Line and around Jerusalem, a 20 km buffer zone west of the Jordan River, and the continued presence of IDF forces in the West Bank. It was decided that another discussion would be held on the Jerusalem and eastern security zone, and that the ministers could bring reservations and suggestions for the location of the security fence to the Prime Minister and Defence Minister by the end of the month. The Cabinet was also considering the possibility of expelling relatives of suicide bombers from the West Bank. One suggestion was that they could be taken to the Gaza Strip, which had more secure borders with Israel. (Israeli Prime Minister’s Office web site http://www.pmo.gov.il , AFP, BBC, Ha’aretz, XINHUA)
The PA condemned the Israeli government decision to deport Palestinian officials close to Chairman Arafat. Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erakat said the decision to deport Palestinians either from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip or abroad was a serious one that would end the whole peace process. He said that the PA condemned the decision to deport Palestinian individuals and families, adding that this decision was a crime that contradicted the Fourth Geneva Convention on protecting civilians in armed conflict. (XINHUA)
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Hamas founder and spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin had been placed under house arrest by the Palestinian Authority, Palestinian authorities said. Palestinian police surrounded the home of Sheikh Yassin in Gaza. However, he invited journalists inside and said he was unaware of any such order. US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Chairman Arafat had to prove his commitment to ending anti-Israeli attacks by making sustained efforts towards preventing them, including the jailing of militant leaders. “In and of itself it doesn’t mark that much progress,” he told reporters when asked about the house arrest of Sheikh Yassin. (AFP, AP, DPA, Reuters)
The IDF has declared six areas in the West Bank, including Ramallah, Tulkarm, Qalqilya, Nablus, Bethlehem and Jenin, “closed military zones”. Up to 600,000 Palestinians in the West Bank are now confined under nearly round-the-clock curfews. (AP, Interfax)
PA Minister Saeb Erakat said Israel was destroying the Palestinian Authority “to replace [it] with the Israeli civil administration and Israeli military government”. But Defence Minister Ben-Eliezer denied any such plan, saying he wanted a deployment of no more than six months. (BBC)
Six Palestinians were killed this morning and 10 wounded, including children, when IDF helicopter gunships fired at two taxis in the Rafah area in the Gaza Strip. Sources claim that the attack was apparently an attempt to assassinate wanted militants. Israel Radio reported that Rafah Hamas commander, Yasser Rizak and local Hamas activist, Amr Kouffa, had been among the victims. Hamas denied these reports and pledged to “intensify the martyrdom operations”. (AFP, Albawaba.com, AP, BBC, Ha’aretz, Reuters, The Guardian, The Jerusalem Post, WAFA)
Prime Minister Sharon, speaking at a Likud faction meeting in the Knesset, said Israel was “preparing to launch a massive operation in the Gaza Strip against the Hamas organization, the beginning of which we witnessed today,” a reference to today’s attack in the Rafah area. (AFP, Albawaba.com, AP, Ha’aretz, The Guardian, The Jerusalem Post)
Foreign Minister Peres said he would have resigned immediately if the Cabinet had accepted a proposed West Bank map including more than a fifth of the West Bank in an Israeli-controlled security zone. Asked how long the army would stay in the West Bank’s Palestinian cities under the current “Operation Determined Path”, Mr. Peres told Army Radio that in his view, “it should stay for the shortest time possible.” “Yesterday they presented a map which, had it been accepted, this morning I would be outside [the Government]”, Mr. Peres said, adding that the problem with the map was “… the eastern front. Suddenly I find a gray stain on the map, which is 22 per cent of the Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), and over which the Cabinet must decide on a security zone, without any reason, with no point, without any need.” The “gray stain” area includes the Jordan Valley, which Mr. Peres noted had about 600-700 families “who must be defended with all our might – on this there is no argument.” But he said that “There is no need to declare a security zone, which includes 22 per cent of the West Bank – it is clear that this is a political change, or a wink toward a political change, in contravention of all the existing agreements.” (Ha’aretz)
Defence Minister Ben-Eliezer reportedly had won formal approval from the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee for calling up reserves for expanded IDF operations in the Palestinian Territory. He said he hoped to begin evacuating isolated, “illegal” settlement outposts soon. By a 9-5 vote, the Committee approved emergency call-up orders for a brigade of reservists to serve as part of the force currently occupying parts of all West Bank towns, except for Jericho. Army Radio quoted Mr. Ben-Eliezer as telling the Committee in closed session that he intended to uproot some 20 “unauthorized” outposts, a number of them in the coming days. (Ha’aretz)
In a nationally televised press conference, President Putin warned Israel against following through on its policy of sidelining Chairman Arafat. “ It would be dangerous and a mistake to remove [Arafat] from the political arena because in our view that would lead to the radicalization of Palestinian society,” Mr. Putin said. “We believe that the Palestinian leadership should do everything in its power to stop the activities of terrorists in its region,” he added. (AFP, Interfax, Reuters, XINHUA)
At least 40 Israeli tanks and APCs entered Ramallah and Chairman Arafat’s HQ, known as “Al-Muqataa”. (AFP, AP, BBC, DPA, Izvestia, Reuters, The Guardian, The Jerusalem Post)
Israeli tanks had entered the Al-Faraa refugee camp, just south of Jenin, firing shells and heavy machine-guns and injuring three adolescents and a local UN employee, camp officials and medical sources said. Two boys aged 12 and 15 had been hit by live ammunition in the back and were rushed to hospital in serious condition, a Palestinian Red Crescent source told AFP. A 17-year-old boy had been wounded in the foot, when more than ten Israeli tanks, APCs and two bulldozers entered the camp, firing at least three tank shells and machine-guns, camp official Yasser Abu Kishek said. Samir Arsan, 55, a Palestinian UNRWA employee, had been hit in the back, but his injury was not life-threatening because he had been wearing a bullet-proof jacket at the time, Mr. Abu Kishek he said. (AFP)
French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin arrived in Israel, having vowed to meet Chairman Arafat, even under Israeli blockade, in an effort to ease the Middle East crisis. Mr. de Villepin, who had flown in from Egypt, had talks with Defence Minister Ben-Eliezer and Prime Minister Sharon. (AFP)
Secretary-General Kofi Annan voiced concern about the Israeli re-occupation of six Palestinian-controlled towns in the West Bank. “Such actions are in contravention of agreements signed during the Oslo peace process, and significantly increase tensions in a volatile situation,” a spokesman for Mr. Annan said in a statement released at UN HQ in New York. “He reiterates his call on both sides to comply fully with the obligations under international humanitarian law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention,” the statement said. Mr. Annan also emphasized the urgent need for the international community to press the parties to end the violence and to return to the path of political negotiations. “There remains no alternative to the resumption of a viable political process between Israelis and Palestinians.” (AFP, DPA, Reuters, UN News Centre, XINHUA)
Speaking in the Rose Garden of the White House, President Bush outlined the US Middle East policy. The following are some of the points made. In his speech, President Bush reiterated his vision of two States, living side by side in peace and security. He called on the Palestinian people to elect new leaders “not compromised by terror” and build a “practicing democracy based on tolerance and liberty”. “When the Palestinian people have new leaders, new institutions and new security arrangements with their neighbours, the United States of America will support the creation of a Palestinian State, whose borders and certain aspects of its sovereignty will be provisional until resolved as part of a final settlement in the Middle East”. He said that a Palestinian State would never be created by terror. It would be built through reform. He continued to say that today “the elected Palestinian legislature has no authority and power is concentrated in the hands of an unaccountable few. A Palestinian State can only serve its citizens with a new constitution, which separates the powers of government”. He said the US, along with the EU and Arab States, would work with Palestinian leaders to create a new constitutional framework and a working democracy for the Palestinian people. And the United States, along with others in the international community, will help the Palestinians organize and monitor fair, multi-party local elections by the end of the year with national elections to follow. The US, the international donor community and the World Bank stood ready to work with Palestinians on a major project of economic reform and development. The US, the EU, the World Bank and the IMF were willing to oversee reforms in Palestinian finances, encouraging transparency and independent auditing. “If they [the Palestinians] energetically take the path of reform, the rewards can come quickly. If Palestinians embrace democracy, confront corruption and firmly rej ect terror, they can count on American support for the creation of a provisional State of Palestine”. This State, he added, could rise rapidly, as it came to terms with Israel, Egypt and Jordan on practical issues such as security. “As new Palestinian institutions and new leaders emerge, demonstrating real performance on security and reform, I expect Israel to respond and work toward a final status agreement. With intensive efforts by all of us, agreement could be reached within three years from now. … As we make progress toward security, Israel forces need to withdraw fully to positions they held prior to September 28th , 2000. And consistent with the recommendations of the Mitchell committee, Israeli settlement activity in the occupied territories must stop”. Mr. Bush said that “the Israeli occupation that began in 1967 will be ended through a settlement negotiated between the parties, based on UN resolutions 242 and 338, with Israeli withdrawal to secure and recognized borders”. He also said that questions concerning Jerusalem, the plight and future of Palestinian refugees had to be resolved. (AFP, BBC, Reuters)
A statement issued by WAFA said “President Arafat and the Palestinian leadership have welcomed the ideas presented by President Bush. The President [Arafat] and the Cabinet view the ideas as a serious contribution to pushing the peace process forward” . “The leadership hopes to discuss the necessary details to secure the success of these ideas through direct and bilateral meetings with the American Administration and with the consultation of the Quartet and the Arab brothers.'' (AFP, AP, Reuters, XINHUA)
The following statement was issued by the Spokesman for the UN Secretary-General:
A report by Physicians for Human Rights – Israel (PHR-Israel) said the latest IDF operation in the West Bank had caused serious disruptions to the work of Palestinian medical teams and ambulances in the cities and towns. It said that since the IDF had entered the West Bank, the movement of ambulances had been restricted within and between towns. Soldiers are said to have harassed the ambulance workers and there were reports of soldiers shooting at the vehicles. Ambulances have been all but banned from villages and small towns where about half of the Palestinian population lives. Calls made to the Red Crescent and Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees from these areas usually go unanswered, with residents having to resort to private transport to take the sick to roadblocks where they can then be picked up by an ambulance. Cases listed in the report contradict earlier commitments by the IDF and rulings by the High Court of Justice that Palestinian ambulances be allowed to travel unhindered, and that soldiers be instructed to respect the international law as it applies to freedom of movement of medical personnel in occupied zones. (Ha’aretz, WAFA, PHR-Israel website)
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Commenting to the press on President Bush’s speech on the Middle East, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan at UNHQ said that “we need to sit down to see how one can implement this plan, how one can operationalize it with specific steps and timelines as to how this can be done.” He also noted that “earlier in the year, we had all indicated some reforms were necessary and the Palestinians themselves have indicated they want reform and have initiated reforms already,” and “we had also hoped that the reforms would not be a condition of the peace process and moving forward.” In his view, the time for the elections in the PA was “not optimal,” as elections were obviously not possible in the current circumstances. (UN News Service)
Israeli troops took over Hebron, the seventh of the West Bank’s eight major cities, reportedly leaving only Jericho untouched by current military operations. The IDF blew up a building within a PA administrative compound in Hebron. The troops exchanged heavy gunfire with Palestinian police inside the compound throughout the day, with four Palestinian police officers being killed. About 150 Palestinians surrendered the next day, among them 20 men wanted by Israel. The IDF spokesman said that the operation in Hebron would continue for at least another few weeks. (AP, Ha’aretz)
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A six-year-old Palestinian boy was killed by IDF fire in the Jenin refugee camp. Palestinian sources said he had been hit in the chest by machine-gun fire from an IDF tank. Another 12-year-old boy was hit in the legs. According to the sources, the boys were throwing stones at the tank. (Ha’aretz)
IDF troops, backed by several jeeps, reportedly moved into Halhul, south of Hebron, firing tear gas grenades and rubber bullets. Israeli troops had arrested five Palestinians overnight in the Hebron region, including two who were on their wanted list, military sources said. Residents in the town of Dura confirmed the arrests and told AFP that one of the captured men was a Palestinian intelligence officer and the other a member of preventive security. (AFP)
The IDF arrested 22 men in the town of Tubas, north-east of Nablus, Palestinian security sources told AFP , and there, bulldozed a police station. A local Hamas leader and a Palestinian security guard were arrested in the nearby village of Aqqaba. Tubas and Aqqaba were both reoccupied by the IDF on 24 June and placed under curfew. (AFP)
A Palestinian street vendor in the Gaza Strip was shot and wounded in the foot by Israeli soldiers when they opened fire at houses in the town of Beit Hanoun, medical and security officials told AFP. Soldiers also destroyed three Palestinians houses in the Rafah region, security sources said, adding that one house was blown up and the other two were levelled to the ground by bulldozers. Israeli tanks deployed near the Rafah border post fired four shells at homes causing damages but no casualties, reportedly after the discovery of a tunnel used to smuggle arms. (AFP)
In a news conference in Jericho, PA Local Government Minister Saeb Erakat announced that Chairman Arafat had “officially declare[d] today that the election of the President of the Palestinian Authority and the election of the Palestinian Legislative Council [would] be held in January 2003,” suggesting 10 January or 20 January as possible dates. Mr. Erakat also said local elections would be conducted in March, the first to be held under the PA. Hamas and the Islamic Jihad said they would take part in the first Palestinian municipal elections when held, but would withhold a final decision on participating in the presidential and legislative elections until conditions and laws for the electoral process were clarified. “Hamas will only participate in an election that will not be restricted or tied to the Oslo peace accords with the Zionist enemy,” Ismail Haniyah, a Hamas political leader, told Reuters , adding that the elections could not be held under Israeli occupation and daily army incursions. Senior Islamic Jihad leader Nafez Azzam said: “If there will be a new mechanism and political programme that supports the resistance and gets away from Oslo, we will study the matter.” “My information is that he (Chairman Arafat) will run for election again,” PA Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Nabil Shaath told a London news briefing. Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo, however, said he could not confirm that Chairman Arafat planned to run and that announcing candidacies was premature before details were worked out and as long as Israeli troops occupied most of the Palestinian cities in the West Bank. (AFP, Albawaba.com, AP, Financial Times, Ha’aretz, Reuters, The Jerusalem Post)
The PA unveiled a 100-day plan of reform in the financial, judicial and security areas that would have all Palestinian governmental institutions restructured and modernized within two months to “create a modern and effective civil service.” PA Local Government Minister Saeb Erakat, who presented the plan at a news conference in his Ministry building in Jericho, denied it was prompted by President Bush’s speech of 24 June, saying that the plan was dated 23 June, and that “we [had] been working on the reforms for months,” adding that the process was delayed by Israel’s reoccupation of much of the West Bank. The plan calls for a series of major reforms of the PA security apparatus within two months. The preventive security services, police and civil defence forces would be attached to the Palestinian Ministry of Interior by presidential decree within one week. In the financial sector, the PA would “implement the principle of the indivisibility of the treasury in the management of public funds,” committing itself to transfer all revenues from commercial and investment activities and foreign aid grants and loans to a single account within two months. The plan also called upon the international community to help end the military blockade of the Palestinian territories, which it says “hamper and can even abort implementation of the reform and development plan”. (AFP, WAFA; see unofficial translation of the plan at http://www.wafa.pna.net/EngText/26-06-2002/page009.htm)
President Bush’s Middle East peace plan took centre stage at the Group of Eight (G 8) Summit at the Rocky Mountains resort of Kananaskis in Canada. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat at a news conference reportedly urged the G-8 meeting to try to convince President Bush that “what Palestinians and Israelis need is action not vision” to resolve the Middle East crisis, as “Vision constitutes no policy.” (AFP, CNN, DPA)
The Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee reportedly approved the final form of a bill that would prevent Palestinians from receiving Israeli compensation for injuries suffered in the first intifada . According to the Defence Ministry representatives, Palestinians have filed a total of approximately 6,500 reparation suits against the state, 3,600 of them for bodily injuries, and the remainder for property damage. The handling of 4,800 cases has finished and 1,500 suits are still pending, with 850 under court investigation. (Ha’aretz)
Israeli Authorities at Ben-Gurion airport in Tel Aviv for the second day in a row refused entry to Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) staff member Eva Rinsten, a Swedish lawyer going to work for PCHR, was denied entry and send back to Sweden only 1½ hours after her arrival on 25 June. On the morning of 23 June, PCHR International Legal Officer Victoria Metcalfe, a British citizen, was denied entry, detained for more than 10 hours in a holding cell at the airport before being sent back to the UK. Both PHCR staff members reported that a number of foreigners trying to enter Israel had been denied entry and deported along with them. (WAFA)
The outgoing head of the ICRC delegation in Israel, René Kosirnik, commented on the Israeli authorities information in March that they had stopped a Palestinian ambulance carrying explosives, told reporters “If it’s true I deplore it, I have total confidence in the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, they do admirable work and if there was abuse I’m convinced it was at indvidual level.” He warned that it was increasingly difficult to keep tabs on the way the protective Red Cross or Crescent emblems were used in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Mr. Kosirnik also said there was “a tendency to use alleged abuse of the emblem” to demonize some of the parties involved, and “that’s bad for everyone because it can have a boomerang effect on other partners.” (AFP)
Construction work on a security barrier around Jerusalem was scheduled to begin today. Jerusalem landscape contractor Eli Yohanan was to start work near the “Tunnels Road”, the south Jerusalem highway that leads to the “Gush Etzion” settlement block. A timetable worked out by Defence Ministry officials envisions completion of the Jerusalem barrier within seven months. The barrier will be made up of two segments. One will be seven kilometres long, beginning in the southern part of the “Tunnels Road” and ending in the Jabal Abu-Ghneim neighbourhood. The second, nine kilometre-long, segment will begin in the “Ofer” military camp, near Ramallah, and end at the “Ar-Ram roadblock”, north of the city. (Ha’aretz)
President Bush, speaking to reporters, said “I’ve got confidence in the Palestinians, when they understand fully what we’re saying, that they’ll make the right decisions”, warning, “I can assure you, we won’t be putting money into a society which is not transparent – and corrupt – and I suspect other countries won’t either.” “We respect democratic processes,” a senior administration official briefing reporters by telephone from the Group of 8 meeting said, “but there are consequences.” (AFP, The New York Times)
European Commission President Romano Prodi told reporters at the Group of Eight meeting that he did not “see any imminent peace conference on the Middle East,” adding that President Bush’s failure to endorse such a meeting in his Middle East policy speech had effectively killed off plans to hold the international gathering. (DPA)
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Six Palestinians had been shot and wounded in an exchange of fire with Israeli troops near the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian security and medical sources said. Earlier, two buildings in the Palestinian autonomous town of Beit Hanoun in the north of the Gaza Strip had been damaged by shots fired by Israeli tanks, Palestinian security sources said, adding that, before opening fire, the IDF had ordered the buildings to be evacuated. Reportedly the Israelis were replying to Palestinian mortar fire at the nearby “Elei Sinai” settlement that reportedly damaged one house there. In a separate incident, an armed Palestinian had been killed in an exchange of fire with Israeli troops in the Balata refugee camp near Nablus, Palestinian security source said. (AFP)
Israeli Attorney-General Elyakim Rubinstein ruled that Israel could not deport families of Palestinian suicide bombers to other countries, a Justice Ministry spokesman said, and had yet to decide whether it would be legal to expel a bomber’s relatives from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip as a means of deterring further attacks. (Reuters)
OIC Foreign Ministers issued a statement urging the UN Security Council “to shoulder its responsibilities in ending the Israeli aggression” and “to shoulder its responsibilities toward ensuring the required international protection to the Palestinian people.” The statement, issued at the conclusion of a three-day meeting of Foreign Ministers in Khartoum, called on its members to “respect the Islamic boycott against Israel and to consider its legislation and rules governing the boycott as part of their national legislation,” as well as to set up a special office to oversee the boycott and to coordinate with the Syria-based pan-Arab Office of the boycott of Israel. (AFP)
In an interview with the BBC ’s Newsnight programme, Foreign Minister Peres said he could still work with Chairman Arafat as head of the PA if he was prepared to adopt sweeping reforms. (Reuters)
In Qalqilya, Israeli troops shot and wounded three children, one seriously. The shooting occurred when people took to the streets after the army had lifted a curfew and soldiers opened fire, for no apparent reason, forcing people to run for cover, witnesses said. The IDF reimposed the curfew after the shooting. In Beit Jala, two other Palestinians, including a 65-year-old woman, had been hurt by Israeli fire, Palestinian security and medical sources said. (AFP)
The Committee to Protect Journalists said in a statement that it was “deeply concerned” over an incident this week in which a Reuters cameraman came under fire while filming in Hebron. A bullet pierced his camera on 25 June, as he filmed from a window on the top floor of a three-storey apartment building. (Reuters)
Two IDF bulldozers destroyed a Palestinian security services position and a house in Tubas, a town about 10km north-east of Nablus, Palestinian security sources said. The army had no immediate comment on the operation. (AFP)
Pope John Paul II had held a private audience with one of the Franciscan Friars who had been trapped inside the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem during an Israeli siege, thanking him for his defence of one of Christianity’s holiest sites, Italian Adnkronos news agency reported the next day. (DPA)
“Uganda supports the establishment of a Palestinian State, which should live side by side and in peace with Isreal,” State Minister for Regional Cooperation Col. Kahinda Otafiire told the OIC at the Khartoum Friendship Hall. (New Vision/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX
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IDF tank shells punctured the perimeter wall of the PA HQ in Hebron and an armoured bulldozer moved in to widen the holes, witnesses said, after an army ultimatum to the estimated 15 Palestinian gunmen besieged inside apparently went unheeded. A former PA Minister Talal Sadr entered the building with the army’s backing to urge 15 armed Palestinians besieged inside for four days to surrender but found “no one to talk to,” Israeli military sources said, adding that there would be no negotiations with the gunmen, and that there were no plans now for soldiers to storm the building. (Ha’aretz, Reuters)
The Palestinian leadership issued an urgent appeal to the Group of Eight leaders meeting in Canada, calling on them “to end the Israeli occupation” and bring about a ceasefire, a statement from Chairman Arafat’s office said. (AFP, DPA)
The Kananaskis Group of Eight Summit Chair’s Summary included the following paragraph: “We stressed our commitment to work for peace in the Middle East, based on our vision of two States, Israel and Palestine, living side by side within secure and recognized borders. We agreed on the urgency of reform of Palestinian institutions and its economy, and of free and fair elections.” (full text at http://www.g8.gc.ca/kan_docs/chairsummary-e.asp)
Israel Radio quoted PA Minister of Local Government Saeb Erakat as saying that experts from Europe, Canada, Norway, Japan and the US had been invited to help prepare for the Palestinian elections. The officials would also be asked to oversee the voting and “guarantee its success.” Mr. Erakat also said that he expected that the experts, who he hoped would arrive in the region as soon as possible, would give the proceedings a degree of fairness, adding that holding elections under Israeli occupation would be “very difficult.” (Ha’aretz)
The IDF announced it had lifted restrictions barring media from six West Bank cities under military control. An army spokeswoman initially said journalists could go “into every place in the West Bank as of today,” but later announced Hebron would stay closed to reporters due to “ongoing operational activity.” (Ha’aretz, Reuters)
Israeli troops entered the village of Azmout, just east of Nablus, in about 20 jeeps, while tanks surrounded the community and a helicopter gunship provided air support, firing in the vicinity. Ten Palestinian men were arrested, witnesses said. (AFP)
Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Møller, whose country was preparing to take over the rotating EU Presidency, told reporters he had met Secretary of State Powell on 26 June, to discuss President Bush’s peace plan, adding “It is important that the Middle East peace process continues and that there be no gap in the international community concerning Israel and Palestine.” (Ha’aretz, Reuters)
Luisa Morgantini, head of the delegation of the European Parliament for relations with the Palestinian Council, strongly protested behavior of the Israeli authorities who had denied entry to an international civil mission. The human chain in Jerusalem, an international event that was to take place on 28 and 29 June in the West Bank and in Jerusalem, had been suspended due to the expulsion of foreign activists who wanted to enter Israel to participate in the event. The event was organized by the Israeli-Palestinian Peoples’ Peace Campaign, which represents both Palestinian and Israeli peace movements, among them personalities like Sari Nusseibeh, Yaser Abed Rabbo, Hanan Ashrawi, Yossi Beilin, Yossi Sarid, Yael Dayan and the two Sakharov Prize winners, Nurit Peled and Izzat El Ghazzawi. (WAFA)
In response to charges of “politicization” that the Simon Wiesenthal Centre raised against the UNESCO World Heritage Committee when it adopted a resolution to protect Palestinian cultural sites, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Culture Mounir Bouchenaki said at a press conference “It was a technical action. It has nothing to do with politics.” Mr. Bouchenaki also pointed out that Israel, which joined the World Heritage Convention in 1972, had had a number of protected World Heritage sites, while important sites in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, could not be listed “because Palestine is not a country.” (AFP)
UNRWA Commissioner-General Peter Hansen stated after talks with Members of the US Congress that he said had lifted doubts about UNRWA’s role in refugee camps, and that a month-long blockade at Gaza port had eased, but delays and restrictions in issuing permits to the agency’s local staff were hampering their work with refugees in Gaza and in the West Bank. “These permits are issued in very short supply. They are normally about to expire by the time they are issued and right now they are not issuing new ones,” Mr. Hansen said. (Reuters)
After a four-day siege, the IDF blew up a section of the PA Hebron HQ, destroying the remainder in a second blast a short while later. The Engineering Corps’ Yahalom unit used some two tons of explosive to carry out the demolition. Troops were searching in the rubble for the bodies of 15 Palestinian militants who were reportedly hiding in the building. (AFP, Ha’aretz)
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A Palestinian woman was shot dead and her husband wounded in Deir al-Balah in the southern Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said. The Palestinians said the couple had been hit by machine-gun fire from Israeli tanks. The IDF said it had heard an explosion in Deir al-Balah, but had not returned fire. In a separate incident, a 12-year-old Palestinian boy was hit in the chest and killed by a tear gas canister Israeli soldiers had shot at the Al-Far’a refugee camp between the West Bank towns of Jenin and Nablus, Palestinian medical sources reported. (Ha’aretz, XINHUA)
The IDF temporarily lifted its curfew of the Palestinian cities and towns in the West Bank so as to give residents an opportunity to stock up on supplies and allow students to take their matriculation examinations. During recent consultations involving Defence Minister Ben-Eliezer and the IDF command, it was decided gradually to reduce the curfew hours in the towns and cities. (Ha’aretz)
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A Jewish-American peace activist was arrested for trying to prevent the demolition of a house in Nablus. (Ha’aretz)
An Israeli commando unit stormed the house of a senior member of Hamas in Nablus, Muhaned Taher, and killed him and his assistant, while injuring a third man. Palestinian sources said Mr. Taher, known as “Engineer-4”, was topping Israel’s most wanted list. Hamas vowed to avenge the killing. (Ha’aretz, XINHUA)
Palestinian eyewitnesses said that dozens of Palestinians outside the Dheishe refugee camp, on the outskirts of Bethlehem, demonstrated against the curfew and threw stones at Israeli troops stationed in the area. They said that the troops used live ammunition to disperse the demonstrators, killing one of them and injuring four others. (XINHUA)
Israeli soldiers shut down a PA liaison office for the Bethlehem region, located in Beit Jala, ordering the staff out and locking the office as well as confiscating the furniture and filing cabinets and removing two Palestinian flags that flew over the building, an AFP photographer and officials said. Defence Minister Ben-Eliezer denied that Israel wanted to dismantle all the liaison offices, which had been set up in line with the Oslo accords, Israel Public Radio said. Israeli military officials quoted by the radio also said the Beit Jala move was a one-off event that did not reflect any plan to shut down all the offices in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. An IDF spokesman also later told AFP the Beit Jala office was shut down only for “operational reasons” and that it did not pave the way for the closure of the other liaison offices. “We are determined to continue our [security] cooperation with the Palestinians as much as possible” through the other liaison offices, he added. (AFP)
Palestinian presidential secretary Tayeb Abdel Rahman reportedly published an article in Al-Quds in response to Defence Minister Ben-Eliezer’s article in the same paper on 27 June, calling for Jerusalem to be the capital of both Israel and a future Palestinian State. “East Jerusalem, with its Muslim and Christian holy sites, must be the capital of a Palestinian State, and West Jerusalem, as well as the Wailing Wall, and the Jewish quarter should be Israel’s,” he told AFP , adding “The positive points presented by Ben-Eliezer could serve as a principle step on the path (to peace), if we add to them other points and details notably a precise solution for Jerusalem.” (AFP)
Defence Minister Ben-Eliezer officially opened work on a protective barrier on the edge of Jerusalem, reportedly touring work on the project that got underway a few day earlier between the settlement of “Gilo” on the outskirts of East Jerusalem and the nearby Palestinian town of Beit Jala outside Bethlehem. The fence, being erected at the foot of “Gilo,” initially will consist of barbed wire, but ultimately will be equipped with an electronic alarm system and surveillance cameras. The Jerusalem stretch of the barrier will be 50km long, and run across the southern, northern and eastern perimeters of the city. (AFP)
Israeli tanks fired at least six shells at the Khan Yunis refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, damaging a number of houses, and no injuries were reported. The IDF said troops had opened machine-gun fire, not tank fire, on the camp after Palestinian militants there fired mortar shells at a nearby army post in “Divanit”, next to the “Neve Dekalim” settlement. In the central Gaza Strip, close to the Netzarim crossing, Israeli troops arrested two Palestinians witnesses said. In the north of the Gaza Strip, two Israeli bulldozers began razing an area of Palestinian agricultural land near Beit Hanoun. The IDF said the bulldozers were not connected to any military activity, and belonged to an Israeli settlement which was razing the land in order to use it for its own purposes. (AFP)
The “YESHA Settlement Council” moved dozens of empty mobile homes and trailers and reportedly evacuated 11 unauthorized settler outposts in the West Bank, following an agreement worked out between Defence Minister Ben-Eliezer and the heads of the “YESHA Council”. The agreement was not made public, unlike a similar one between former Prime Minister Barak and the Council in 1999. In the outpost removal, settler sources said that an empty trailer near “Talmor”, on the outskirts of Ramallah, was removed and four unpopulated mobile homes in two outposts south of Hebron, near “Beit Haggai” and “Pnei Hever”, were removed. But the IDF said that at least two of the 11 outposts removed yesterday were populated: the farm near “Elon Moreh,” where two people lived in a truck trailer, and a pair of settler couples near “Beit Haggai.” Shas, National Union, Yisrael b’Aliyah and the National Religious Party held meetings to discuss how to prevent the evacuation of the settlements in the future. (Ha’aretz)
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Document Type: Chronology
Document Sources: Division for Palestinian Rights (DPR)
Subject: Incidents, Palestine question
Publication Date: 30/06/2002